Chapter 6: Ease of Access

The days and months passed as Solace grew up. Before long, a further eight months had already passed, and the now one-year-old child had already taken his first steps and spoken his first words.

'Looking back at that time, I wonder if I acted rashly by calling out Mama all of a sudden. I could somehow feel she was down in the dumps and thoughtlessly called out her name. Bah! I don't regret it. Just recalling that beautiful smile made it absolutely worth it.'

Around the fourth month, Solace realised that his vocal cords had yet to have the muscle memory that would allow one to be able to speak out and articulate a whole word. Since then, he had been constantly babbling and gurgling whatever words he could make out from the mouths of the individuals around him, training to be able to one day say his first word.

Finally, however, upon saying his first word and causing an uproar in the inner wing of the household due to cuteness overload, Solace realised he might have acted too smart for his own good. People would be weary of things they could not fathom, and that was a principle applied to humans as well.

'But fuck acting like a child. I haven't lived 32 years of my life to be a blubbering mess all over again. Being unfamiliar with the language should be enough of a stunt on my growth. Everything else is a free game.'

The only problem Solace had identified with that line of thought was that people would then also hold high expectations for him, and yet the issue was brushed aside when he figured 32 years would be able to compensate well for revealing a decade or two's worth of 'unrivalled' talent. After all, he had been an advisor to the prime minister in his past life. A position that was mostly focused on maintaining international relations and required one to be quite adept.

'When teenagers turn into adults, no one actually cares about you anymore, anyway. That's just the way life is, so I'm not too worried about stagnating anytime soon.'

Besides being able to articulate words over the last year, Solace's vision had been getting better. And by god was he thankful for that because he was able to lay witness to the majestic beauty of those around him. Besides him, there was one child and four adult women, and it was certainly a sight to behold.

'They're all well and truly 10/10 knockouts. Except for the kid. Ugh… I don't even want to think about that.'

From what the boy could glean, the one who constantly lathered his chubby face with her fat hunks of meat was his mother, and when she was relaxing she would usually be accompanied by what Solace assumed to be a close relative. The little girl was quite clearly his older sister, given the way she addressed his mother, though she couldn't usually be found in the company of the mother-son duo.

The remaining two women were what cemented Solace's view that he was truly in a fantasy world. The first of the two was a tall (everyone appeared tall in the child's eyes, something he found very hard to get used to), somewhat immaculate butler. She was not very well-endowed, however, her straight-laced temperament, and formal dress wear coupled with a stoic expression were very pleasing to the eye.

While Leah (the name he attached to the stoic woman based on what he heard) could not be considered out of the norm back in his own world, especially when some dubious individuals had their strange fetishes, Esme, on the other hand, would have outrageously stuck out like a sore thumb in his old civilisation. It was not the monstrously huge boobs that she had hidden behind the thin fabric of a classic maid uniform or the intense motherly aura that exuded out of her very being, but the two curvy horns sticking out of her head.

While Solace could not find a pair of wings or a tail protruding out of her rear, he was sure that this maid was some sort of demon. And yet, to have allowed his older sister to be in the company of that woman, he was sure she was trustworthy or there were measures in place that allowed his mother to leave the young girl in the cow-titled woman's care.

— — —

At only a few months of age, and with only an eye for the boobs in front of him and nothing else, Solace had no nefarious thoughts about the women that surrounded his day-to-day. Coupled with his inability to produce a certain category of hormones as a pre-pubescent being, there were no waves within his tiny heart.

But as he grew older, and his eyes could actually observe the woman who would, at the drop of a hat (more specifically a shrill cry), throw him at her boobs, he had reached a bit of an impasse about what he wanted to do to her in the future.

With a fairly busy first life, as one of the youngest officials advising the minister, and constantly having to travel to different countries, Solace had developed a hedonistic lifestyle. Sating his lust and relieving the pressure in his balls had been a great way to keep his mental and physical health in check. He did have to admit, the women he lay his hands on did at times bring him not a small amount of trouble, but no one said the best of pleasures and luxuries would not come at a steep price.

Similarly, the mother in front of him would be a fine addition to his repertoire of exploits, but the endorphin-addled brain of his brought about by constantly suckling on the woman's bosom, reinforced the mother-son relationship in his mind and made it hard for him to think about pouncing on her in the future.

— — —

Back in the present time, Solace was looking at a woman who sat behind an ornate wooden desk doing some paperwork, while he sat on one corner of the large tabletop watching her do so.

When Solace's vision had become more resolute, and he could actually make out the figures on a piece of paper, he began to just sit in silence beside his mother or aunt when they had some sort of writing in front of them. Alexandria had truly grown to appreciate Solace's quiet and calm at a time when she was conflicted between leaving him with Esme or keeping him beside her throughout the day.

The mother slightly chuckled as she recalled a fond memory of how this little dynamic had come about. Luckily for her, one day the boy who was on the cusp of taking his first steps, was sitting on her lap as she was working when she noticed his unusual quietness. Slightly worried about the implications, she saw the little baby just about poking his head above the desktop and staring intently at the words she wrote.

"Solace? What are you looking at dear?"

Slightly amused at the attention he was giving her monotonous paperwork (how she wished she could be as enthused as her child was), she brought him out of his stupor by raising him to meet her eyes. Solace looked into her eyes for a second, before pointing his cute arm toward the desk.

"Mama."

"Hm, baby, would you like to see what mommy is doing?"

The baby didn't express much reaction to what she just said but she figured it was because of his childish desire to get what he wants from his mother without expressing his requirement- in Solace's case, Alexandria guessed it was due to an ability to do so rather than because he was childish but that would mean he was smarter than she could have ever imagined.

So she quickly sat him on top of the desk and watched as he swiftly sat with his legs spread beneath him, before looking back at the papers. Then, as though expressing his confusion at his mother who was just watching him, he looked back at her. The pair looked at each other for a while, before Solace broke the silence, causing Alexandria to break out into a huge grin.

"Mama."

"Yes, yes Solace. I'll be getting back to my work now dear. Would you like to watch Mommy working?"

Putting pen back to paper, she discreetly looked at her child out of the corner of her eye and noticed his unbroken gaze towards the paper.

'This child… I guess he likes the way the pen moves or something, huh?'

— — —

Unbeknownst to the duchess, Solace had just been trying to work out the language through writing. While working out letters from random text was nigh impossible without some sort of wartime code-breaker, he had been looking over which symbols and signs appeared frequently, and how the writing style of this world differed from his past world.

Unfortunately, he could not just ask his mother, or his aunt who he found to be reading books in the living room sometimes, to just read out loud, because he did not have the vocal capacity to do so, but at the end of the day it was all about taking baby steps. He would rather spend his time trying to work out what was what with the few brain cells he currently had, than be playing around with some stupid plushy toy or whatnot. And sitting in silence beside his mother came with another benefit- being able to stare at the beautiful proportionate side-figure of hers. While still on the fence about what to make about the future relationship with his mother, and without an influx of lust-inducing hormones, he was only able to appreciate the beauty in front of him.

'Oh! I missed one benefit actually…'

Noticing his mother putting down her pen, and organising the papers into a tidy pile, Solace realised she was done with the paperwork for the time being, and so called out to her.

"Mama. Milk!"

'…Ease of access, hehe.'

"Yes, yes. One second, baby."

And that concluded his first year as a newborn.